My guess is that it will be announced in the /e/ forum and someone’s going to relay the message here shortly afterwards 
4 Likes
Good move.
With Fairphone Open OS still in limbo and official LineageOS not in sight yet being the only viable open OS on the Fairphone 3 apart from the tinkering-heavy and update-uncertain GSI niche should very much boost overall /e/ usage.
4 Likes
Update on the beta testing program: they are now signing up volunteers.
5 Likes
I’m really excited about how fast this is going. 
Maybe the mail service will go live sometime this year. This will probably cost some money, but it is probably the easiest way. (i) (But now it might be dangerous.) 
The installer will surely be extended for Fairphone 3 at some point. (ii)
(i) https://community.e.foundation/t/mail-in-your-phone-is-in-beta-testing/9100
(ii) https://community.e.foundation/t/the-e-os-installer-arrives-need-beta-testers/12883/22
2 Likes
I don’t get it: I thought /e/ was based on Lineage. How can it be more advanced?
On the Fairphone 2 /e/ was based on LineageOS, I seem to remember.
On the Fairphone 3 the /e/ port was started without LineageOS being available, but the team would have been happy about working LineageOS builds … and these exist in the form of GSI.
2 Likes
I have a question regarding /e/. Maybe I am completely wrong, but I am interested in you opinion.
Do you guys/gals think they are trustworthy? I mean didn’t read much about them till now, and then they suddenly pop up with this quite professional appearance (Design, Website, concept with selling preinstalled phones etc.) which is somehow not so common for a new small open source project. I mean I think it’s cool that the do it this way, cause that’s how you reach people. But in the end making an OS is such a huge project that there can not only be intended and not yet detected backdoors but also bugs that lead to security issues…
I am not so advanced in this and maybe too suspicious. But the fact that they are using telegram (!!!) as a communication tool really started me thinking. I mean telegram is highly dubious and not encrypted at all in the group chats…
I am not as suspicious as you are, but at least I do not find the answer
Some partner companies handle the commercial side of the project and help finance e Foundation.
very compelling.
Don’t forget that the creator of /e/ already created Mandrake Linux in 1998 so he has >20 years experience in the ICT field.
4 Likes
/e/ was earlier known as “project eelo”. It started in January 2018 so it’s not that new.
There was a kickstarter project to start the funding.
5 Likes
Progress update: https://community.e.foundation/t/fairphone-3-fp3-support-on-e/6438/111?u=ingo_fp_angel
4 Likes
Work in Progress:
- Camera
- Sensors
- GPS
- Fingerprint <<<< Just for this point I’m really interested to have a feedback, I’m always thinking the fingerprint reader is faulty but that could be also only a software problem. So I guess if they could let it work really correctly they could advise Fairphone on the matter.
2 Likes
For me, Gael and the /e/-project seems very serious to me. I use /e/ and am happy with it. Gael is someone with experience, also an entrepreneur, so he makes things happen professionally, he is not a little programmer with 2 friends hacking in the living room…
BTW, if you count the people in the team at https://e.foundation/about-e/ you end up slightly above 40. Ok, it also has “regular contributors and occasional contributors”, i.e. not employees (how many of the 40+ are actually employees would be nice to know).
It looks like they are pretty close to a beta release. Really good work, can’t wait to order my FP3 when it will be officially supported.
1 Like
hmm… i will put it on my watch list. However - a lot of things are unclear to me in this /e/ thing. Its Android in Core, Any android Apps can be used (but jet they don’t mention HOW EXACTLY you get them there). Sideload is no Option for me. Better things to to with my spare time then side load every single app.
If it ends up by installing open Gapps in the end, then i can also just leaf it…
Also how exactly you can install it is not jet clear, lets see how difficult/Easy it will be. And: will you have (ore able to get) Root access?
1 Like
They have their own app store (with apps from fdroid and clearapk as far as I know), so no sideloading necessary. If you need paid apps from Googles Play Store you’d end up with Gapps, of course, but that’s the case for all alternative OSes.
At the moment the installation is basically the same as for LineageOS. An installer is in beta as far as I know but I haven’t tested that yet. Or you buy a refurbished phone from them and get /e/ preinstalled.
And yes, it’s possible to have root on /e/
4 Likes
I wouldn’t agree on that point. You can download and install paid apps using Aurora store (and using a Google account in this case). So no need for Open Gapps. It’s just that some paid apps don’t work together with “only” microG (included in /e/ system).
6 Likes
Thanks for clearing that up.
It’s different (Aurora + actual Google account vs. full Gapps) but same (applies to any alternative OSes).
3 Likes
I may not have followed all the threads here but I’m wondering: Once available, isn’t installing /e/ OS a one-way street for you? I mean, there’s no officially approved method from Fairphone to reinstall the original OS, is there? How do you restore the original Android then in case of issues or whatever?